Richter Scale Day 2023: Date, History, Facts about Richter Scale Day

Every year on April 26, we celebrate Richter Scale Day with great enthusiasm. We may not yet know who established this day, but we celebrate it to honour Charles Richter, the inventor of the Richter scale, the very first instrument used to measure earthquakes.

The background of Richter Scale Day

While the originators of this holiday remain unknown, we do know that it honours Charles Francis Richter, the American seismologist and physicist who taught the world how to measure earthquakes.

Richter was born on a farm in Ohio and relocated with his mother to Los Angeles as a teen. He studied physics at the University of Southern California, Stanford University, and the California Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D. in the field.

While attending the California Institute of Technology, Richter was profoundly influenced and motivated by a paper written by Japanese seismologist Kiyoo Wadata on superficial and deep earthquakes. During his time at the California Institute of Technology, Richter collaborated with German-born Beno Gutenberg to develop the Richter scale of measurement. This scale quantified the earthquake energy emitted on a scale from 0 to 10. Each number on the scale corresponds to an earthquake 10 times more powerful than the previous number. For instance, a magnitude five earthquake is 10 times stronger (and releases more energy) than a magnitude four earthquake.

The Richter scale has become the international standard for measuring earthquakes. Although other scales have been developed since then, none have attained the same level of popularity as the Richter scale.

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FUN FACTS ABOUT RICHTER SCALE DAY

According to various studies, there has been only one major earthquake in the globe since 1900; it occurred in Chile and was known as the Great Chilean Earthquake or the 1960 Valdivia Earthquake. It registered a magnitude of 9.5.

Microearthquakes are tremors less than 2.5 on the Richter scale that are rarely felt by humans.

The Himalayas and the Andes were formed by the movement of tectonic plates, which are vast sections of the Earth’s crust.

They are known as moonquakes and their magnitudes are typically lesser than those of earthquakes.

Globally, approximately 500,000 detectable earthquakes occur annually, according to rough estimates.

RICHTER SCALE DAY DATES